Joseph Xavier Forte (born March 23, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. He played two seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA) and was an All-American player at

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

Beginnings

Forte got his start at

DeMatha Catholic High School DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington ...

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper ...

. There, Forte played under the instruction of legendary high school prep coach

Morgan Wootten Morgan Bayard Wootten (April 21, 1931January 21, 2020) was an American high school basketball coach for 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He led the Stags to five national championships and 33 Washington Cathol ...

. Forte's teammate at DeMatha, Keith Bogans, has played for several teams in the NBA. Forte was named

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

All Met Basketball Player of the Year in his senior year, during which he averaged 22.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

Career highlights

After a 2-year college career at

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

(highlights of which included winning the 2000

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

Rookie of the Year as well as 2001 ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year) that was marked by flashes of brilliant play, he was selected by the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

with the 21st pick in the

2001 NBA Draft The 2001 NBA draft took place on June 27, 2001 in New York City, New York. Kwame Brown became the first high school player to be drafted with the first overall pick in the history of the NBA. The selection of Kwame Brown by the Washington Wizards, ...

(at a time when later star players

Tony Parker William Anthony Parker Jr. (born 17 May 1982) is a French-American former professional basketball player and majority owner of ASVEL Basket in LNB Pro A. Himself the son of a basketball pro, Parker started his career at Paris Basket Racing in ...

and

Gilbert Arenas Gilbert Jay Arenas Jr. (; born January 6, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Arenas attended Grant High School in the Valley Glen district of Los Angeles, and accepted a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona lat ...

were still available at the guard position). Forte would only play in the NBA for 2 seasons for a total of 25 games (8 games for Boston in his rookie season, and 17 games for the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

in his sophomore season). In those 25 games, Forte averaged 1.2 points and 0.7 assists per game, struggling to convert from his natural

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

position to

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run the team's offense by ...

. His final NBA game was played on April 16, 2003 in a 84 - 70 win over the Phoenix Suns where he recorded 2 assists and no points in 5 minutes of playing time. After being released by the Sonics, Forte couldn't find a roster spot in the NBA and joined the

Asheville Altitude Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

of the

NBA D-League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

. During the summer of 2005, Forte played with Team Certified of the

Entertainers Basketball Classic Entertainer's Basketball Classic is a basketball tournament held at Rucker Park in New York City. It was founded by Greg Marius in 1982. In 1986, the original Rucker Park Tournament became the Entertainers Basketball Classic. Participants of the to ...

Rucker Park Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park is a basketball court in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, just east of the former Polo Grounds site. It is geographically at the base of a large cliff ...

, leading the team to the playoffs. After the summer, he went to Greece to play with

Apollon Patras :''The first version of this article has been based in the text of :el:Α.Σ. Απόλλων of the Greek Wikipedia published under the GFDL.'' A.S. Apollon Patras (Greek:''A.Σ. Απόλλων Πατρών'') is a multi-sports club that is bas ...

. He then moved to the Italian club

Montepaschi Siena Mens Sana 1871 Basket is an Italian professional basketball club based in Siena. It is a section of the sports club Polisportiva Mens Sana, founded in 1871. Under the name Montepaschi Siena, derived from sponsor Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, t ...

, which won the 2007 Italian championship game. In July 2007 he signed with the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n team

UNICS Kazan BC UNICS (russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 20 ...

. In January 2008 he signed for

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Kiğılı Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. Histor ...

with a franchise option for the following season. He was waived after only two games played and in December 2008 he joined

Snaidero Udine Pallalcesto Amatori Udine, better known by the sponsorship name Snaidero Udine, was an Italian professional basketball club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In 2011, following the dissolution of the club, a new team, APU Udine, was founded ...

, another Italian Serie A team. In May 2009 he asked to be waived for personal matters. On January 8, 2010, he joined

Nuova Pallacanestro Pavia Pallacanestro Pavia was an Italian professional basketball club based in Pavia, Lombardy. For past club sponsorship names, see the list below. History The club was established in 1943 as Onda Pavia by industrialist Luigi Cazzani. In 1955–56, ...

, an Italian LegaDue team (Italian second division). Forte signed with

Pistoia Basket A.S. Pistoia Basket 2000, known for sponsorship reasons as OriOra Pistoia, is an Italian professional basketball team based in Pistoia, Tuscany. History The city of Pistoia was formerly represented in the first division LBA by Olimpia Basket Pi ...

of Italy on August 20, 2010 for the 2011 season. With Pistoia, he averaged 18.9 points and 3.6 assists per game in the regular season In an 82–81 loss to Fileni BPA Jesi on January 9, 2011, Forte amassed 34 points, the third-highest single-game total in team history. Forte left Pistoia after being a key component and frequent starter in the team's playoff run. On October 6, 2011, Israeli side

Ironi Ashkelon Elitzur Ashkelon ( he, אליצור אשקלון) was a professional basketball team based in Ashkelon in south-west Israel. The team reached the quarterfinals of the EuroCup Challenge in 2006 Iranian Basketball Super League The Iranian Basketball Super League (IBSL) is a professional men's basketball league in Iran. It was founded in 1998. The current champions is Shahrdari Gorgan. The league follows the promotion and relegation system in which the worst two te ...

team

Petrochimi Bandar Imam BC Petrochimi Bandar Imam Basketball Club ( fa, تیم بسكتبال پتروشیمی بندر امام, ''Tim-e Beskâtbal-e Petrushimi-ye Bendâr Eman''), also known as shortly Petrochimi, is an Iranian professional basketball club based in Mahshah ...

for 2012. Through his first two games in league play, Forte averaged 9.1 points, 3.0 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Family

His younger brother, Jason Forte, played college basketball for

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and was named

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

player of the year in 2004.

References

External links

*
Joseph Forte
at asia-basket.com
Joseph Forte
at euroleague.net

at nba.com/dleague {{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Joseph 1981 births Living people African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Israel American expatriate basketball people in Italy American men's basketball players Apollon Patras B.C. players Asheville Altitude players Basketball players from Atlanta BC UNICS players Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players DeMatha Catholic High School alumni Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna players McDonald's High School All-Americans Mens Sana Basket players North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Pistoia Basket 2000 players Point guards Seattle SuperSonics players Shooting guards 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people